History and Generations of Computers

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards detailing the definitions, key devices, historical figures, and generations of computer evolution from the lecture notes.

Computer

An electronic device that manipulates information or data, carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via programming, accepting input, processing and storing data, and generating desired output.

Abacus

A computational device used in Babylon 2000 years before the Greeks where beads are slid up and down on rods to add and subtract.

Napier's Bones

A calculation tool associated with John Napier, who invented logarithms using lookup tables to solve tedious mathematical calculations.

Slide Rule

A calculating device created in 1632 by English mathematician William Oughtred, consisting of a movable ruler placed between two fixed and marked rulers.

Pascaline

The first calculator, invented in 1645 by Blaise Pascal to help collect taxes, which added and subtracted by rotating dials.

Stepped Reckoner

A calculating machine invented in 1674 by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

Jacquard's Weaving Loom

A loom created in 1804 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard that adapted punched cards to control weaving, providing a model for data input and output in computing.

Difference Engine

A machine invented in 1830 by Charles Babbage to solve certain equations.

Analytical Engine

A mechanical general-purpose computer invented by Charles Babbage that embodied five key features of modern computers: input device, storage, processor, control unit, and output device.

Charles Babbage

Known as "The Father of Computer", an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.

Augusta Ada Byron

Known as "The First Computer Programmer" or Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician and writer known for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and recognizing applications beyond pure calculation.

Hollerith's Punched Card Machines

Electromagnetic counting machines created in the 1880s by Dr. Herman Hollerith using 3"x 5" punched cards to sort and tabulate the 1890 US census data.

Herman Hollerith

A statistician with the US Bureau of Census known as "The Father of Information Processing".

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)

A prototype computing machine built by Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry using electricity, vacuum tubes, binary numbers, capacitors in a rotating drum for memory, and logical systems.

Z1

The first general-purpose computer, invented by German engineer Konrad Zuse.

Mark 1

An automatic general-purpose calculator invented by Harvard University Professor Howard Hathaway Aiken.

ENIAC

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, invented by John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert and used in World War II to calculate trajectory tables for new guns.

UNIVAC

Universal Automatic Computer, the first general-purpose commercial computer, used by the US Census Bureau in 1951.

EDVAC

Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, proposed in 1946 by Dr. John von Neumann as a modified version of ENIAC and developed by Princeton University.

First Generation Computers

Computers from 1940 to 1956 that used wired circuits containing thousands of vacuum tubes and relied on punched cards as the main storage medium and input.

Sir John Ambrose Fleming

An English electrical engineer and physicist who invented the first vacuum tube in 1904.

Second Generation Computers

Computers from 1956 to 1963 that used transistors, magnetic core technology for primary memory, and magnetic tapes and disks for secondary storage.

Transistor Inventors

William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain, the three physicists who invented the transistor in 1947.

Third Generation Computers

Minicomputers from 1964 to 1971 that used Integrated Circuits (ICs) or chips and replaced punched cards with keyboards and monitors.

First Integrated Circuit (IC)

Developed in 1958 by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Incorporated.

Fourth Generation Computers

Microcomputers from 1971 to present that use a microprocessor integrating multiple computer functions and support Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Intel 4004

The first microprocessor, introduced in the year 1971 by Intel.

Fifth Generation Computers

Computers (present and next) based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) using Super Large Scale Integrated (SLSI) chips storing millions of components, capable of learning and self-organization.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Technology used in fifth-generation computing to simulate the human way of thinking and reasoning, encompassing Expert Systems, Natural Language Processing, speech recognition, voice recognition, and robotics.